“What’s worth roughly $2.9 million to each of you individually?” asked Kyle Claussen at the opening of his session at the WSMA’s Leadership Development Conference in Chelan in May. By the end of his fast-paced 45-minute presentation, he brought the answer full circle for conference attendees. But first, he highlighted key components of physician contracts that WSMA members should keep front of mind before they sign on the dotted line. Besides specializing in physician contract review, Claussen is married to a physician and has a front row seat to the art of the deal.
When you’re considering your next contract, he advises keeping several things in mind.
He notes that physicians need to pay close attention to scheduling, duties, responsibilities, when and where you’ll work, how much call you’ll take, whether you can “moonlight” or consult, keep your intellectual property, supervise advanced practice providers with or without pay, and have time for administration and research. Claussen notes, “All of this is failure number one in most contracts in that they start out saying the employer controls all of it.”
“We have to know the notice periods and how you get out of these things,” he says. It’s critical to know if it’s for cause or without cause, what the effects might be on the next employer, if there’s “tail” coverage, noncompetes, repayment obligations, damage amounts required, or force majeure clauses. “All of these things matter,” Claussen says, “and a lot of the time, physicians overlook this part in favor of what the salary and signing bonus are.”
The typical elements of compensation are base salary, production bonus, signing bonus, relocation allowance, CME, and vacation time, etc. You may also see quality bonuses (these are generally very subjective), possibly compensation for APP supervision, student loan forgiveness, and retention bonuses. But evaluating these elements requires some data analysis. “If a percentage of your total compensation is tied to patient satisfaction, whether you show up to committee meetings or other things out of your control, we don’t like that,” Claussen says. “Most of what you’re doing should be quantifiable or objective for your compensation.” The next step is researching the data. “You have to know what the market says is the right number for your specialty,” he says. “You have access to data sets on the Resolve website, where the information is verified and from physicians.”
“Every single employer is going to tell you this is their standard contract, and every single physician has signed it,” Claussen says. “I can tell you that 85% of the contracts we review get changes made.” Employers use information to determine what they say is fair value, but physicians don’t have access to the data being used. “That first number we talked about? The $2.9 million? That’s what you leave on the table if you’re underpaid by 10% for 25 years on an average salary,” explains Claussen. “It’s not really about the compensation-it’s about being treated fairly for the work you’re doing. It’s about capturing the value that you create.”
Kyle Claussen is the president of Resolve, a tech platform that helps physicians review contracts and provides salary data, along with contract reviews. Email Kyle at kyle@resolve.com or call 877.758.3318 to speak with a Resolve representative.
Resolve offers an Instant contract review to WSMA members, providing access to comprehensive compensation data for your specialty, as well as an instant review of one employment contract, powered by an attorney-trained AI model. You may also talk to Resolve’s health law attorneys. WSMA members receive a 10% discount on any Resolve service by using the code WSMA10.